Govt staff unions move HC against salary deduction

Admission Hearing On The Petitions Expected Today

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kochi:28.04.2020

Around a dozen petitions were filed by employee unions before the high court on Monday questioning the salary challenge brought in by the state government to aid Covid-19 relief measures.

The unions that approached the high court includes Aided Higher Secondary Teachers Association, through advocate P Mohandas; Raju KK and three other employees of Kerala State Cooperative Bank, through advocate PN Mohanan; Forum for Justice, through advocate P Mohandas; Kerala Vydyuthi Mazdoor Sangham (BMS), through advocate P Mohandas; United Democratic Electricity Employees Front, through advocate Elvin Peter PJ; Kerala Water Authority Staff Association-INTUC, through advocate P Mohandas; and Financial Enterprises Employees Association, through advocate Elvin Peter PJ. Additionally, Kerala NGO Sangh and Kerala NGO Association have raised similar challenges before the Ernakulam bench of Kerala Administrative Tribunal through senior advocate KP Satheesan.

As per the petitions filed with the high court, the government has issued an order on April 23 to defer payment of salary of six days in a month for five months. Such an action is being done through an executive order without amending the statutory rules, it is alleged.

The petitioners point out that even though the order says the salary is being deferred, it is not mentioned when it would be released. Thus, the deferment is actually deduction of salary permanently, the petitioners have contended.

Central government and all other state governments issued orders appealing to government employees to donate a day’s salary towards the welfare fund for facing the crisis due to Covid-19. In the case of the central government, one day’s salary per month for 12 months is requested, the petitions said.

But in the request made by the central government, there is an option that unwilling employees need not pay the donation. As far as the state government’s order, it is a compulsory order of deduction without any authority of law and without obtaining any consent of any of the employees, alleged the petitioners.

When the state government issued a similar directive after the 2018 floods, the high court had stayed a clause in the order compelling the employees to pay. The high court had said that the clause amounted to compulsion. Though the state government had approached the Supreme Court, it had declined to interfere with the stay issued by the high court.

Citing the government’s order in 2018, the service organizations have now alleged that the government has now found a way out by mentioning the deduction as deferment instead of donation or contribution. The net result is recovery of one month’s salary and it is done without any rules and on the basis of an executive order, the petitions stated. An admission hearing on the petitions is expected on Tuesday.

The petitioners told the high court that even though the government order says the salary is being deferred, it is not mentioned when it would be released